What will the Bordeaux vineyards of the future look like in a context of global warming that is harming the vine and its grape varieties? Bernard Magrez, a well-known personality in the world of wine, chose to think about it. And to act. At Château La Tour Carnet, its 2.5 hectares of experimental vines have the ambition to find answers. They stand at the entrance to his imposing 252-hectare wine estate, fourth grand cru classé, one of the jewels of the man nicknamed “the man of 40 castles”. At just 86 years old, Bernard Magrez is the owner of 43 vineyards in Bordeaux and around the world.
On closer inspection, the plants in this plot of La Tour Carnet have been showing, since the end of March, strange black threads arranged on their feet. These are long heating cables usually used to raise the temperature of aircraft wings. The idea of the scientific center of the Bernard Magrez group, led by Julien Lecourt, research and development manager, is to simulate the increase in temperatures in vines with buds already formed, to anticipate the effects of climate change.
Connected to a control cabinet, these cables make it possible to reproduce the scenario of a warming of 2 to 4 degrees by 2050. Because there is urgency. The forecasts put forward by the United Nations Environment Program are clear: the global temperature of the earth should increase by 2.7 degrees by the end of the century. A situation supported by the third part of the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published on April 4.
A real laboratory
In Bordeaux, the consequences of climate change are already being felt in the vineyard. Increasingly numerous and violent episodes of hail, also of frost, which surprise vines with buds already formed. They are also affected by the heat waves which weaken them from year to year.
Bordeaux wines, recognized for their characteristic tannins, their grape varieties, such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet Franc, will they always be the best suited to produce the Bordeaux Grands Crus Classés? This question torments Bernard Magrez. He himself noticed a drop in the quality of some of his wines during difficult climatic episodes. So, in 2013, the businessman decided to plant these experimental vines on his estate, where a historic tower dating from 1120 stands. The past on one side, the future on the other.
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